Le Cygne
Chapter One
PARIS, 1884
LARA sat waiting on the uncomfortable little wooden chair outside the Managers' office for over half an hour. She had been turned away yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, by the Managers' assistant. He had only given her this interview because he pitied her. She could tell. He pitied the fact that she had nowhere else to go and so her only choice was to return to the Opera House every day in the hope that the Managers could spare some time to speak with her. So today he had told her to sit and wait outside the office and he would alert the Managers to her presence there, but it was not up to him whether they spoke to her, if they wanted to give her their time then they would call her in.
As she waited she thought about the beautiful grandeur of the Opera Populaire: of the main auditorium with its red velvet chairs and curtains, the golden artistic nudes lining the walls, of the chandelier with its hundreds of tiny crystals, set in the ceiling painted to look like the heavens. Lara remembered being six years old and standing with her mother in the auditorium and staring up open-mouthed at that chandelier, her mother leaning over and whispering in her ear.
"Look at the stage, Lara." she murmured, "Someday you will dance there, like your Mama never got to." She then took little Lara's hand and led her out of the Opera House to where Lara's father was waiting outside. That night they began their journey home to Vienna. Lara would not return to Paris for another eleven years - her parents however were never destined to return. She thought of how she had longed all of her life to become a dancer here, how the beautiful Opera House had occupied her every dream for the past eleven years.
Suddenly the door at the end of the corridor which led back out into the lobby opened and a man walked down the corridor towards her. As usual, Richard Firmin had arrived for work a good hour after his partner, Gilles André. Firmin, whistling tunelessly, nodded politely to the young woman before disappearing into the office.
André was sitting at his desk, furiously scribbling a note to someone or another, he didn't bother to look up, opting to give his usual grunted "Good morning".
"André, tell me, who is that young woman sitting outside?" Firmin asked, taking off his hat and overcoat and hanging them next to the door.
André lifted his head, "Young woman?"
"The one sitting outside the office." Firmin said impatiently.
"What's she like?"
"Oh, I don't know! Quite young, quite pretty. She could be rather beautiful if she wasn't wearing those awful boarding school clothes." André sat back in his chair and thoughtfully fiddled with his pen. As both Managers had a weakness for young, pretty girls, it was quickly decided that they should invite her into the office. Firmin, who was still standing, flung the door open enthusiastically and stepped out into the corridor.
"Good morning, Mademoiselle! Please forgive us for keeping you waiting, I'm afraid we've been terribly busy of late! My name is Richard Firmin. Oh please, do come in, do come in!"
"There is nothing to forgive, Monsieur. Thank you for agreeing to see me." Lara said as Firmin ushered her into the office. With her she carried a large bulging carpet bag which the Manager looked at curiously but said nothing about.
Inside the office André had risen from his seat to greet her, "Good day, Mademoiselle." he said reaching to shake her hand.
"Good day, Monsieur, my name is Lara Schuschnigg."
"German?" André said, going by her surname and slight accent.
"Austrian."
"Ah. Well, my name is Gilles André and I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Mademoiselle Schuschnigg." He didn't quite pronounce it correctly but Lara felt it wouldn't be beneficial to her if she were to correct him.
"Now, what can we do for you?" Firmin asked, ushering her towards a chair.
Lara decided to get straight to the point, "I want to be a dancer." she said. The Managers shared a look which told her she wasn't the first girl to come to them with the request.
"Mademoiselle Schuschnigg, I am afraid we already held auditions several months ago. And we can hardly hire every dancer who comes asking for a place, the Opera would be overrun with them!" Firmin said gently.
"I have a letter of recommendation from Herr Wilhelm Jahn." Lara said, producing said letter from her pocket. The Managers muttered to one another in surprise, it wasn't every day that a dancer turned up with a letter of introduction from a well-known Opera House director. Firmin took the envelope, read the letter inside then passed it to his colleague.
"You were a dancer at the Vienna Court Opera?" André said after reading the letter.
"Yes." Lara said. The letter was rather impressive, praising the young woman's skills as a dancer and telling how everyone at the Vienna Court Opera expected great things of her, but what else was to be expected considering who her mother was?
"Your mother?" Firmin questioned.
Lara sighed unhappily, "Elsa Schuschnigg, though you may know her better as Elsa Haas." This produced another ripple of wonderment from the Managers: Elsa Haas had come from a prestigious dancing family and had once been the Vienna Court Opera's principle dancer; after gaining considerable fame and popularity in Austria and some notoriety in the upper circles of the rest of Europe, Elsa Haas had mysteriously quit dancing shortly before she was to go on tour with the Court Opera - a tour which would surely bring her great fame throughout Europe and possibly lead her to being acknowledged as one of the greatest dancers of the century. All this at the age of twenty was no mean feat.
"May I ask the reason why your mother quit dancing?" André said, eager to learn the answer, for Elsa Haas' mysterious disappearance had puzzled him for years.
"I was that reason." Lara muttered.
"Oh! Oh…I see…" André spluttered embarrassedly.
The Managers stared at the young woman seated in front of them: not only had her dancing ability been highly praised by the very famous director of a very famous Opera House, she also had an impressive lineage and possessed exceedingly good looks; long golden hair piled neatly atop her head; exotic green eyes, shaped like a cat's; a pale complexion like that of a classic Greek statue; a well proportioned face with delicate features; and a slender body with slight curves and long legs.
Both Managers knew what the other was thinking and Firmin elected to speak for both (as he usually did), "Mademoiselle Schuschnigg, I think it is time we saw you dance."